a blog where i go in depth about various games i really liked in the past.nostalgia incoming :)

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

total annihilation

ok these days ive been really busy with little time to spend on my pc.i barely had any time to play any retro games to show you guys but in the next days things will get better.
so this RTS goes way back.it was one of the first to offer a 3d feeling on its maps,lots of units and a unique feeling.im talking of course about total annihilation.

Total Annihilation is set in the far future in the midst of a galactic war, with battles taking place on the surface of planets and moons. The efforts of the player are centered around constructing a defensive base and an offensive force, and conquering opponents. The player is also concerned with gathering resources, reconnaissance and stealth, and evaluation of units and terrain. Battles take place against AI in a story-driven campaign, with the option of playing against other players in a skirmish mode.

Normally, the player begins with the unique Commander unit, a mech with the ability to create structures to form a base and, by extension, a military force comprising a range of mobile units. The Commander, in addition to being a powerful combat unit, is vital to the player because of its ability to quickly construct units. This makes the loss of a Commander a critical event in any game. Construction is governed by the possession of the game's two unlimited resources, Metal and Energy, and can be undertaken by factories or mobile construction units. Every unit belongs to a level of technology (tech level); the higher the level, the more advanced the unit and the more resources and thus time required to construct it. A feature of the game is the ability to easily "queue" the many commands for a unit or group of units, with types of commands including patrolling a route, constructing a defensive group of structures and attacking enemy units. Once given its commands, the unit will go about them automatically thus minimizing the need for the player's attention to small, repetitive tasks. The victory conditions of a multiplayer game generally involve the elimination of all enemy units, but the aim of single player campaign missions can be more specialized.

Resources in Total Annihilation are handled in a manner different from other RTS games of the day: they are "streaming," meaning that they are accumulated at a constant rate rather than in small batches; and they are limitless. In addition, all units and structures have a fixed cost, but they build at varying rates depending on the unit constructing them. A Commander, for example, will build a structure much faster than a tier-1 engineer. Of course, the faster a unit or structure is built, the faster the cost thereof is deducted from the player's reserves, competing with the rate at which resources are acquired. Thus, the commander is a double-edged sword, being able to build units and structures quickly, but at rates that quickly become unsustainable in the early game without sufficient reserves. If the rate at which resources are used exceeds the rate at which resources are acquired, then the player's reserves will begin to be depleted. If a player's reserves are entirely depleted, the player's production across the board will slow to a rate proportional to the amount by which outflow exceeds income. In addition, if the player runs out of energy, radar structures and stealth fields will cease to function. This adds an element of economic complexity unparalleled in most RTS games of the time period.

The player can command a variety of units from fighter and bomber aircraft, to tanks and mechs, to ships and submarines. Given their robotic nature, units are self-contained with no limiting factors such as fatigue, fuel or morale. Units can vary in size, speed and the ability to give and take damage, generally depending on their tech level. One praised feature of the game's units are their hierarchical proportionality— that is, an advanced unit being equal in combat terms to many weaker units, but taking a proportionately longer time to build. Each unit has strengths and weaknesses, optimal styles of use, and corresponding units against which it is vulnerable or well-suited. Effective play is usually characterized by consideration of these attributes, as well as efficient resource management, strong defences, and knowledge of the opponent's strategies. The game's interface consists of construction and command buttons (depending on the unit selected), unit status information, resource information on the production of Energy and Metal, and a minimap which gives an overview of the game's battlespace— the visibility of which may be hindered by fog of war, necessitating the use of radar or scout units. There are a few highly-advanced units which are invaluable combat-wise, such as nuclear missile launchers which have unlimited range and very high damage. There are two story-related factions which, while aesthetically different, have a similar set of units.

Total Annihilation was one of the first RTS games to feature radar that caused enemy units within its radius to appear on the minimap despite being covered by the fog of war. This added an additional element of electronic warfare to the game: players could construct stealth generators that prevented units in a small radius around them from appearing on radar. Mobile stealth generators could be used to create surprise attacks, necessitating the deployment of scout units on a regular basis to reveal said units visually. In addition, stealth generators could disguise the presence of visually cloaked units, such as the commander or land mines. Radar fields rendered cloaked units visible; a stealth field could make said units invisible until the stealth generator itself was destroyed.

Total Annihilation was the very first RTS game to point the way towards battlefields with hundreds and thousands of units. Previous games had produced engaging gameplay with several scores of units. However, Total Annihilation initially permitted 200 units per side which was later patched to 500 and then to 1,000 or more units per side. This was battle on a scale not compassed by any previous game. The first subsequent RTS game to produce the same atmosphere is Cossacks: European Wars, which has up to 10,000 units per side.

The game features a physics engine which governs projectiles, explosions and wreckage. The terrain is strictly 2D but contains height values which allow it to act as a 3D surface. Hills obstruct artillery fire, and, depending on the "line-of-sight" setting, height enhances units' visual and firing ranges. If terrain is steep and jagged, units tilt and turn to meet the face of the ground. Structures can be built on steep terrain to protect them from artillery fire and to create choke points.Artillery shells are affected by gravity, which is actually variable on different planets- particularly on lower-gravity moons. Units that achieve five kills receive "veteran" status which increases health and damage, as well as giving the unit the ability to lead moving targets. This effect grows with every five subsequent kills.